Apogee Symphony Mk 1 Dolby Atmos Monitoring

[Dalton_Sound]

Good Day All,

Hopefully this is the right place to put this. I currently have an Apogee Symphony Mk 1 which I've had for quite some time. I have been wanting to get started in Atmos mixing for music and post production, which I've done recently on Headphones, and then QC on my home theatre. Currently my Symphony Mk 1 only has the 2x6 I/O card. My questions are this:

1) If I had a 16x16 card, would I be able to properly set up a monitoring solution with this, and be able to control them with relatively little "jank"?

2) Is the cost of buying a 16x16 card (roughly $1800-$2500 from what I've seen) worth it for an interface that is as old as the Symphony Mk 1, or would I be better off buying a new(er) Digilink based interface and selling the Symphony?

3) If I should get a different interface, do you have any recommendations that are in the $3k price range and are HDX compatible... I don't want to stop using my HD Native, and I almost exclusively use PT for all of my work. I don't do much recording anymore, and realistically only need 2 onboard preamps as long as they are of an acceptable quality for archival/restoration work.

My current rig is an HD Native Thunderbridge with the Apogee Symphony Mk1 2x6 with Genelec 1032B stereo monitors. I'm also looking into a less expensive multichannel monitoring setup to augment the Genelecs, but that may be a discussion for another post (wouldn't mind the feedback in that regard as well)

(I'm reposting this here from GearSpace to hopefully get some responses)

I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say on this.
Thank you!

[its2loud]

If you don’t do much recording anymore, why do you want to keep your HD Native?

[Dalton_Sound]

I still work pretty much exclusively in PT. I also do record archival work and high sample rate copies for restoration. I also suspect I will start getting back into doing location recording for live shows- I was doing a lot of that before, but didnt have a great setup for it- either pulled a 2 track from an aux mix at the venue that I’d live mix during the show, or pull stems from a digital desk.

With doing Dolby Atmos, don’t I want the low latency of an HDX system anyway?

I also use the plugin processing. What is your reasoning for me ditching HD, and what would you recommend switching to in leu of that?

[its2loud]

You don’t have HDX. You have HD Native, which doesn’t leverage any benefit for using plug-in with low latency (DSP). All HD Native does for you is limit your channel count (64 maximum) and force you to stay with Digilink interfaces.

You don’t mention your Pro Tools version or computer system. Both of those things will determine whether you can do Dolby Atmos. There are some really nice third party Thunderbolt interfaces for your price range that will benefit you much more than staying with your HD Native.

If you wanted to stay with the HD Native then you should do some research on the Avid MTRX Studio.

[Dalton_Sound]

Thank you for the correction on the DSP - I had thought that Native did DSP.

It doesn't limit my channel count to 64, it limits my IO count to 64. Max channel count with one HDX card or an HD Native is 256 at 48khz. I frequently run sessions with 100+ channels. Apologies for not mentioning my computer setup: I have a 2019 MBP with an i9 and 64gb of RAM. I currently do all of my Dolby Atmos workflows through the binaural mix in the Dolby Renderer. I was looking at the MTRX Studio- and honestly upgrading to at least a single HDX card.

Do you think that a different interface would be a better option than trying to use my Symphony?
What would be your Thunderbolt interface recommendations?

Thanks its2loud! I appreciate the dialog we are having.

[original_min]

Does your Symphony Maestro still work in Ventura/Sonoma?

I have a MKI 16x16/8MP and it worked fine with 5.1, but that was just as a straight HD interface.
I'm not sure the monitoring control works over larger channel counts, so you'd possibly be adjusting that elsewhere.

And Just FYI,
The Analog only 16x16 card is also compatible with the MKII, so you're not totally without options if you stick with Apogee down the road. There may also be used ones around.

A list of the MKI cards that can also be used in the MKII...
https://knowledge.apogeedigital.com/...e-restrictions

[JFreak]

mkII box requires that the 16x16 card is installed to the bottom slot for Atmos, so bear that in mind if you want to try it with mkI.

Also be prepared to switch to mkII box with thunderbolt or dante connection instead of HD option, only word I have heard is mkII boxes are compatible.

[its2loud]

It doesn't limit my channel count to 64, it limits my IO count to 64.

This is what I meant by “channel count”. For the IO. In any case, there are a wide variety of Thunderbolt interfaces available. DAD makes a few, it’s just a matter of whether or not you really want to to keep the HD Native. If you were to buy an HDX card I’m not sure what that gets you except for DSP processing. I don’t believe you can run a system with both HDX and HD Native but I could be wrong about that.

If you’re wanting to increase your room to full Atmos speaker array, you’re going to want to think about what type of Monitor Controller you’re gonna need/want.
Any DAD interfaces or Avid MTRX line will come with DADMan software for easy Eucon integration and Monitoring capabilities with either Avid control surfaces or other hardware options like StreamDeck+ or DAD’s own MOM controller will allow for easy speaker control.

[JFreak]

From my experience, if someone has chosen Apogee it is because of the converters. Shame mkI may not have Atmos like mkII has and likely mkIII is right around the corner, but many of the Symphony cards are compatible with mkI and mkII so that's where I would be trying the 16x16 card.

[capt kirk]

If I buy that Symphony MK II w the remote , can I use it as a ganged volume control for Atmos mixes, in my home playback theatre?(out to my genelecs) I wanna plug in ONE thunderbolt cable to my macbook pro and hit play on the PROTOOLS session.....is it possible ? or do I need 3 different cludged together boxes and software?